Nicos Poulantzas (
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
:
Νίκος Πουλαντζάς; 1936 – 1979) was a
GreekGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
Marxist
political sociologistPolitical sociology is the study of power and the intersection of personality, social structure and politics. Political sociology is interdisciplinary, where political science and sociology intersect. The discipline uses comparative history to analyze systems of government and economic organization...
. In the 1970s, Poulantzas was known, along with
Louis AlthusserLouis Pierre Althusser was a Marxist philosopher. He was born in Algeria and studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where he eventually became Professor of Philosophy....
, as a leading
Structural MarxistStructural Marxism was an approach to Marxist philosophy based on structuralism, primarily associated with the work of the French philosopher Louis Althusser and his students. It was influential in France during the 1960s and 1970s, and also came to influence philosophers, political theorists and...
and, while at first a Leninist, eventually became a proponent of
eurocommunismEurocommunism was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties to develop a theory and practice of social transformation that was more relevant in a Western European democracy and less aligned to the influence or control of the Communist Party of the Soviet...
. He is most well-known for his theoretical work on the state. But he also offered Marxist contributions to the analysis of
fascismFascism, , comprises a radical and authoritarian nationalist political ideology and a corporatist economic ideology developed in Italy. Fascists believe that nations and/or races are in perpetual conflict whereby only the strong can survive by being healthy, vital, and by asserting themselves in...
,
social classSocial classes are the hierarchical arrangements of people in society as economic or cultural groups. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political economists and social historians...
in the contemporary world, and the collapse of the dictatorships in Southern Europe in the 1970s (e.g.
Nicos Poulantzas (
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
:
Νίκος Πουλαντζάς; 1936 – 1979) was a
GreekGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
Marxist
political sociologistPolitical sociology is the study of power and the intersection of personality, social structure and politics. Political sociology is interdisciplinary, where political science and sociology intersect. The discipline uses comparative history to analyze systems of government and economic organization...
. In the 1970s, Poulantzas was known, along with
Louis AlthusserLouis Pierre Althusser was a Marxist philosopher. He was born in Algeria and studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where he eventually became Professor of Philosophy....
, as a leading
Structural MarxistStructural Marxism was an approach to Marxist philosophy based on structuralism, primarily associated with the work of the French philosopher Louis Althusser and his students. It was influential in France during the 1960s and 1970s, and also came to influence philosophers, political theorists and...
and, while at first a Leninist, eventually became a proponent of
eurocommunismEurocommunism was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties to develop a theory and practice of social transformation that was more relevant in a Western European democracy and less aligned to the influence or control of the Communist Party of the Soviet...
. He is most well-known for his theoretical work on the state. But he also offered Marxist contributions to the analysis of
fascismFascism, , comprises a radical and authoritarian nationalist political ideology and a corporatist economic ideology developed in Italy. Fascists believe that nations and/or races are in perpetual conflict whereby only the strong can survive by being healthy, vital, and by asserting themselves in...
,
social classSocial classes are the hierarchical arrangements of people in society as economic or cultural groups. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political economists and social historians...
in the contemporary world, and the collapse of the dictatorships in Southern Europe in the 1970s (e.g.
Franco'sFrancisco Franco Bahamonde, commonly known as Francisco Franco , or simply Franco, was a military general and dictator of Spain from October 1936, and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in 1975...
rule in Spain,
Salazar'sAntónio de Oliveira Salazar,
GColIH,
GCTE,
GCSE served as the Prime Minister and dictator of Portugal from 1932 to 1968. He was the President of the Republic in 1951, as interim...
in Portugal, and
Papadopoulos'sGeorgios Papadopoulos was the head of the military coup d'état that took place in Greece on April 21, 1967 and leader of the military government that ruled the country from 1967 to 1974.- Early life and military career :...
in Greece).
Life
Poulantzas studied law in Greece and was active in the student movement. He then moved to France.. He killed himself in 1979 by jumping from the window of his Paris flat.
Theory of the state
Poulantzas's theory of the state was reacting against what he saw as more simplistic understandings within Marxism.
InstrumentalistIn the philosophy of science, instrumentalism is the view that a concept or theory should be evaluated by how effectively it explains and predicts phenomena, as opposed to how accurately it describes objective reality....
Marxist accounts held that the state was simply an instrument in the hands of a particular
classSocial classes are the hierarchical arrangements of people in society as economic or cultural groups. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political economists and social historians...
. Poulantzas disagreed with this, because he saw the capitalist class as too focused on their individual short term profit, rather than on maintaining the class's power as a whole, to simply exercise the whole of state power in its own interest. Poulantzas argued that the state, though relatively autonomous from the capitalist class, nonetheless functions to ensure the smooth operation of capitalist society, and therefore benefits the capitalist class. In particular, he focused on how an inherently divisive system such as capitalism could co-exist with the social stability necessary for it to reproduce itself - looking in particular to nationalism as a means to overcome the class divisions within capitalism. Poulantzas has been particularly influential over the leading contemporary Marxist state theorist,
Bob JessopBob Jessop is a British Marxist academic and writer who has published extensively on state theory and political economy. He is currently Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of Lancaster.-Work:...
.
Borrowing from
Antonio GramsciAntonio Gramsci was an Italian philosopher, writer, politician and political theorist. A founding member and onetime leader of the Communist Party of Italy, he was imprisoned by Benito Mussolini's Fascist regime...
's notion of
cultural hegemonyCultural hegemony is the philosophic and sociological concept, originated by the Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci, denoting that a culturally-diverse society can be ruled , by one of its social classes. It is the dominance of one social group over another, i.e. the ruling class over all other...
, Poulantzas argued that repressing movements of the oppressed is not the sole function of the state. Rather state power must also obtain the consent of the oppressed. It does this through class alliances, where the dominant group makes an 'alliance' with subordinate groups, as a means to get the consent of the subordinate group. In his later works, Poulantzas analysed the role of what he termed the 'new petty bourgeoisie' in both consolidating the ruling classes
hegemonyHegemony is the preponderance of power, and the construction of consent from the powerless through cultural values.-In politics:...
and undermining the poletariat's ability to organise itself. By occupying a contradictory class position, that is to say, by identifying with its
de factoDe facto is a Latin expression that means "by [the] fact". In law, it is meant to mean "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but without being officially established"...
oppressor, this fraction of the working class throws its lot in with the bourgeois whose fate it (wrongly) believes it shares. The fragmentation (some would argue the demise) of the class system is, for Poulantzas, a defining characteristic of late capitalism and any politically useful analysis must tackle this new constellation of interests and power. An example of this can be seen in a Poulantzas-influenced analysis of the
New DealThe New Deal was the name that United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave to his complex package of economic programs 1933-36 with the goals of what historians call the 3 Rs, of giving Relief to the unemployed and badly hurt farmers, Reform of business and financial practices, and promoting...
in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
: the American ruling class, by acceding to some of the demands of
labourWorking class is a term used in academic sociology and in ordinary conversation to describe, depending on context and speaker, those employed in lower tier jobs as measured by skill, education, and compensation....
(regarding things like
minimum wageA minimum wage is the lowest hourly, daily or monthly wage that employers may legally pay to employees or workers. Equivalently, it is the lowest wage at which workers may sell their labor. Although minimum wage laws are in effect in a great many jurisdictions, there are differences of opinion...
, labour laws, etc.), helped cement an alliance between labour and a particular fraction of capital and the state [Levine 1988]. This was necessary for the continued existence of capitalism, for if the ruling class simply repressed the movements and avoided making any concessions, it could have led to a
socialistSocialism refers to various theories of economic organization advocating public or direct worker ownership and administration of the means of production and allocation of resources, and a society characterized by equal access to resources for all individuals with a method of compensation based on...
revolution.
Legacy
Poulantzas provides a nuanced analysis of class structure in an era when the internationalisation of production systems (today 'globalisation') was shifting power from labour to capitalist classes. In many areas, he foresaw the current debate on the critical Marxian language of 'class', 'bourgeoisie', and 'hegemony' finds little echo in contemporary political science where its positivism requires researchers to focus on putative measurable and objective entities. However, by placing class analysis at the center of political analysis, Poulantzas reminds us that theorists are political agents themselves and that accounts of the political world are suffused with the ambient ideology that they suppose themselves to bracket.
Major works
- Poulantzas, Nicos. Political Power and Social Classes. NLB, 1973 (orig. 1968).
- Poulantzas, Nicos. Fascism and Dictatorship: The Third International and the Problem of Fascism. NLB, 1974 (orig. 1970).
- Poulantzas, Nicos. Classes in Contemporary Capitalism. NLB, 1975 (orig. 1973).
- Poulantzas, Nicos. The Crisis of the Dictatorships: Portugal, Greece, Spain. Humanities Press, 1976.
- Poulantzas, Nicos. State, Power, Socialism. NLB, 1978.
- Poulantzas, Nicos. The Poulantzas Reader: Marxism, Law and the State, ed. J. Martin. Verso, 2008.
Further reading
- Jessop, Bob. Nicos Poulantzas: Marxist theory and political strategy. Macmillan, 1985.
- Levine, Rhonda. Class struggle and the New Deal: industrial labor, industrial capital, and the state. University Press of Kansas, c1988.
External links